Transatlantic

Biography

Transatlantic was founded in 1961 by twenty one year Nat Joseph after a trip to the USA and the realisation that a wealth of music of interest wasn’t being made available to UK fans. Joseph began to import records on the Prestige, Tradition and Riverside imprints, as well Russian classical label MK before starting to record British artists.
Often thought of as a folk label, Transatlantic’s A&R policy was intentionally eclectic and their first commercial success was with a series of sex education albums that courted controversy and sold in excess of 100,000 copies. The resulting financial

Transatlantic was founded in 1961 by twenty one year Nat Joseph after a trip to the USA and the realisation that a wealth of music of interest wasn’t being made available to UK fans. Joseph began to import records on the Prestige, Tradition and Riverside imprints, as well Russian classical label MK before starting to record British artists.
Often thought of as a folk label, Transatlantic’s A&R policy was intentionally eclectic and their first commercial success was with a series of sex education albums that courted controversy and sold in excess of 100,000 copies. The resulting financial lift gave Joseph the resources to artists as diverse as The Dubliners and actresses Sheila Hancock, Jean Hart and Isla Cameron. Transatlantic subsidiary XTRA was much more folk orientated and producer Bill Leader recorded the likes of Mick Ryan, Martin Simpson and Nic Jones.
Notably, the label also recorded seminal bodies of work by Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, as well as The Humblebums, featuring Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly. It enjoyed commercial success with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra and introduced Mike Oldfield to the world with the signing of The Sallyangie, along with sibling Sally.
With the advent of flower power and psychedelia, Transatlantic’s artists achieved increasing popularity , culminating in the formation of super-group Pentangle, featuring Jansch, Renbourn, Jacqui McShee, bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox.
In 1975, with the label suffering the inevitable financially difficulties, Joseph sold 75% of the label to the Granada Group, who within two years had sold that share to Marshall Cavendish, who also acquired the remaining 25% and folded the label into Logo Records. Logo signed The Tourists (featuring Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart) and The Street Band (including singer Paul Young) but was eventually sold to Castle Communications.
Castle relaunched the Transatlantic imprint in 1994 with releases by The Tansads and Big Country but the experiment was short lived and the label was acquired by BMG as part of Sanctuary.
Includes: Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Pentangle, Gerry Rafferty, The Humblebums, The Dubliners, Metro, Isla Cameron, Circus, Ralph McTell, Sweeney’s Men, The Sallyangie, Stray, Ian Campbell Group, Billy Connolly & Pasadena Roof Orchestra